Central Austin Homes for sale
As recently as the mid-1990s, downtown Austin, with the possible exception of Sixth Street, was a dead zone after 6pm. There was little to do, nowhere to shop, and few people wanted to make the trip into downtown just to eat. And the idea of actually living downtown was unthinkable. But with the tech boom downtown Austin began to change, in a rapid and radical way.
As recently as the mid-1990s, downtown Austin, with the possible exception of Sixth Street, was a dead zone after 6pm. There was little to do, nowhere to shop, and few people wanted to make the trip into downtown just to eat. And the idea of actually living downtown was unthinkable. But with the tech boom downtown Austin began to change, in a rapid and radical way.....Read more
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MLS# 8021553
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Based on information from the Austin Board of REALTORS® for the period through 2012-05-17 09:18:47. Neither the Board nor ACTRIS guarantees or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. All data is provided "AS IS" and with all faults. Data maintained by the Board or ACTRIS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.
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The development of the Warehouse District downtown provided a sort of "If you build it, they will come" object lesson, seeing as it was designed to attract a slightly older demographic than Sixth Street does. Before long, downtown was the place to be. The city government announced a goal that there be 25,000 people living in downtown by 2015.
Apartment and condo towers were going up right and left, chic shops, bars, and restaurants were opening up. Longtime residents looked at all the growth and shook their heads. They said, "These people are over-building. There's no way there's enough people to fill all those buildings." And when the world economy went sour, the nay-sayers said these high-rises would stand empty—ugly reminders of the dangers of being too optimistic. But amazingly, condo sales downtown have remained strong, and the demand has now outstripped the availability of units.
On the other hand, Central Austin as a whole has always been a popular place to live, work, and pass leisure time. The State government and the University of Texas are based out of this area, so naturally many people who work for those organizations want to live close by. Visitors from out of town often confine their explorations to the Central Austin area, to the exclusion of everything else. And while this does an injustice to the other attractions in town, it is understandable. There's just so much to do in Central Austin.
Technically speaking, the State Capitol is the whole reason there's an Austin in the first place. The enormous, pink granite Victorian building, with a dome taller than that of the US Capitol, enjoys pride of place in the skyline, and sits at the head of broad Congress Avenue. Start out at the Capitol Visitors Center, which is located in the old General Land Office building and includes a Texas tourism information desk, move on to the Capitol itself, and finish up a few blocks north at the new state of the art Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, which includes three floors of exhibits and an IMAX theater.
On the opposite end of Congress Avenue is the 416-acre Town Lake/Lady Bird Lake, which separates Central Austin from South Austin. Its nine bridges include the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, summer home to a colony of a million Mexican Free-tailed Bats, and the James D. Pfluger, FAIA (Lamar Blvd.) Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge, which provides hikers, walkers, runners, joggers, and bicyclists using the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail with a safe means of getting back and forth from one side of the lake to another, without having deal with car traffic.
Other popular attractions located along Congress Avenue are the Paramount Theatre, a restored motion picture palace that is mostly used as a performing arts venue, but that often hosts movie premieres and revivals of classic films, and the new Arthouse at the Jones Center, a gallery that shows innovative artwork in a newly-renovated space.
On the east side of downtown the leading attraction is East Sixth Street, which is often compared to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and is lined with bars and live music venues filled with college students and tourists. It is also home to the the Driskill Hotel, a Victorian showplace that opened in 1886. Intersecting with East Sixth is Red River Street, which is known for such music venues as Emo's and Stubb's BBQ. A little further south, the 881,400 square foot Austin Convention Center is located between Red River and Trinity Streets and East Fourth and East First (Cesar Chavez). Every spring, the Convention Center is the headquarters for South By Southwest, the music, film, and interactive convention that provides more revenue to Austin than any other annual special event.
West of Congress you'll find the newly-developed West Second Street, (also known as West Willie Nelson Boulevard), which is lined with upscale restaurants, boutiques, the Austin Children's Museum, the Antoine Predock-designed City Hall, the Austonian, a residential skyscraper that is one of the tallest buildings in the state, Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater, and the W Hotel.
Just north of the Second Street district is the Warehouse District, with bars and restaurants aimed at a slightly older crowd than that patronized by East Sixth. Its leading attractions include the venerable Antone's blues club, La Zona Rosa, Fado Irish Bar, Oilcan Harry's, Truluck's, Kenichi, and Sullivan's Steakhouse. North of that is yet another bar and restaurant district--West Sixth Street--which has flourished recently due to all the high-rises that have been built in that area. Its bars and restaurants include Opal Divine's Freehouse, Molotov, Ranch 616, Little Woodrow's, The Hoffbrau, Hut's Hamburgers, and Frank & Angie's Pizzeria. At the intersection of West Sixth Street and North Lamar are Book People, the largest independent bookstore in Texas, the Whole Foods flagship store, which is a wonderland for foodies, and Waterloo Records, one of the largest and most respected music stores in the United States. West of Lamar is a section of art galleries.
Just north of the State Capitol is the huge campus of the University of Texas at Austin, which would take days to explore properly. Book a tour of the UT Tower for a spectacular view of the city. The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, and a block north of the Bob Bullock Museum, has collections of antiquities, prints, and European and American art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. The Texas Memorial Museum, housed in an Art Deco building near the Law School, specializes in natural history and paleontology. The dinosaur and fossil exhibits are a huge hit with children.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum has artifacts from the late President's political career and a reproduction of the Oval Office as it was decorated during his administration. Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is home to Texas Longhorn football games, while the Frank Erwin Center is sometimes a venue for touring musical acts. The Visual Arts Center displays work designed by UT art students. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center is a special collections library. While most of its holdings are accessible only to scholars, there are exhibits on the ground floor of some collection highlights, including the world's first photograph, a Gutenberg Bible, and other historical, literary, cinematic, and artistic treasures.
Needless to say, the area all around UT is filled with bars, restaurants, and shops. The Drag is a section of Guadalupe Street west of campus stretching roughly from about MLK Boulevard north to around 32nd Street. While the Drag has lost much of the bohemian vibe that characterized it from the 70s to the 90s, it's still a great place for people-watching. You can stock up on Longhorn-related clothing and other souvenirs at the University Co-op.
Further north is Hyde Park, a planned residential community known for its beautifully-restored Victorian and Craftsman-style homes. While there are pricier and more luxurious neighborhoods in town, if you asked many Austinites where they'd live if they had the money, they'd likely say Hyde Park.
One highlight of Hyde Park is the Elisabet Ney Museum , the home and studio of an eccentric sculptress who moved to Texas after establishing her reputation sculpting the famous and the powerful in Europe. Among her most familiar works are the statues of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin in the southern entrance foyer of the State Capitol.
North of Hyde Park is North Loop, a hipster-dominated area that includes a few vintage stores, dive bars, and funky restaurants. West of downtown are such neighborhoods as Clarksville, Pemberton Heights, and Tarrytown. (If you explore Pemberton Heights, make sure and drive by the Pemberton Castle at 1415 Wooldridge Drive, which was used as the sales office for the subdivision in the 1920s).
Other attractions in the western part of Central Austin are Camp Mabry, a National Guard camp that is home to the Texas Military Forces Museum, and, on the shores of Lake Austin, the Austin Museum of Art-Laguna Gloria, which includes the Italianate villa of philanthropist Clara Driscoll, and an art school.
Central Austin parks include:
- Northwest Recreation Center (2913 Northland Drive)
- Perry Neighborhood Park (4800 Fairview Drive)
- Gaines Creek Greenbelt (4800 South Mo Pac Expressway)
- Mount Bonnell at Covert Park (3851 Mount Bonnell Drive)
- Mayfield House (3505 West 35th Street)
- Mayfield Nature Preserve (3801 West 35th Street)
- Reed Neighborhood Park (2614 Pecos Street)
- Walsh Boat Landing (1600 Scenic Drive)
- Lions Municipal Golf Course (2901 Enfield Road)
- Ramsey Neighborhood Park (4301 North Rosedale Avenue)
- Triangle Commons Pocket Park (722 West 46th Street)
- Shipe Neighborhood Park (4400 Avenue G)
- Elisabet Ney Museum (304 East 44th Street)
- Bailey Neighborhood Park (1101 West 33rd Street)
- Sparky Pocket Park (3701 Grooms Street)
- Hancock Golf Course and Recreation Center (811 East 41st Street)
- Lamar Senior Activity Center (2874 Shoal Crest Avenue)
- Adams-Hemphill Neighborhood Park (201 West 30th Street)
- Eastwoods Neighborhood Park (3001 Harris Park Avenue)
- Shoal Creek Greenbelt (2600 Lamar Boulevard)
- Caswell Tennis Center (2312 Shoal Creek Boulevard)
- Johnson Creek Greenbelt (2001 Enfield Road)
- West Enfield Neighborhood Park (2008 Enfield)
- Mary Francis Baylor Clarksville Park (1811 West 11th Street)
- Haskell House (1705 Waterston Street)
- Palm Plaza Pocket Park (1524 Palma Plaza)
- Pease District Park (1100 Kingsbury Street)
- West Austin Neighborhood Park (1317 West 10th Street)
- Austin Recreation Center (1213/1301 Shoal Creek Boulevard)
- Duncan Neighborhood Park (901 West 9th Street)
- Wooldridge Square (900 Guadalupe Street)
- Waterloo Neighborhood Park (500 East 12th Street)
- Symphony Square (1101 Red River Street)
- Treaty Oak Square (507 Baylor Street)
- Lamar Beach in Town Lake Metropolitan Park (1200 West Cesar Chavez Street)
- Shoal Beach at Town Lake Metropolitan Park (707 West Cesar Chavez Street)
- Republic Square (422 Guadalupe Street)
- Waller Beach at Town Lake Metropolitan Park (30 East Avenue)
- Sir Svante Palm Neighborhood Park (200 South IH-35 SVRD SB)
- Brush Square—O. Henry Museum (409 East 5th Street)
- Old Bakery and Emporium (1006 Congress Avenue)
- Waller Creek Greenbelt (703 East 6th Street)
Everything that's great about Austin can be found in the Central district. This is where people come first for entertainment, shopping, business, and a comfortable place to call home amid the big city. Other downtowns may have more concrete, crowds, and high-rises, but Central Austin has livability, and more fun places you can take the time to enjoy. Many of Austin's annual festivals are based in the central district, including the huge South By Southwest Music Festival, which helped the city become known as the "Live Music Capital of the World." Central Austin is also a hotbed of economic activity and high-tech innovation, with major employers such as 3M, Motorolla, Dell, and IBM operating here.
Urban excitement blends nicely with old fashioned charm in the Central district, where much of Austin's heritage has been preseved. Central Austin is home to many beautiful historic sites, such as West Austin Park, and old neighborhoods such as Allandale, Pemberton Heights, and Brykerwoods. These areas feature some of Austin's finest character homes, built mainly between the 1920s and 1960s. Many older Central Austin homes are surrounded by large, carefully manicured properties dotted with mature oak and cottonwood trees, affording luxurious shade and privacy in Austin's busiest district. The University of Texas at Austin provides an additional backdrop of classic architecture and landscaping for many homes between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, and E Dean Keaton St.
The Central Austin real estate area also has a wide variety of newer homes, condos, and rental properties in all price ranges. The district is bounded by I-35 on the east, Town Lake on the South, Mopac Expressway on the West, and Anderson Lane on the North.
More Central Austin information
Central Austin Residential Real Estate Statistics
| 615 Homes for Sale | Beds | Baths | SqFt | Listing Price | Listing Price per SqFt |
| High | 7 | 8 | 9,615 | $7,750,000 | $1,088 |
| Low | 0 | 1 | 300 | $44,500 | $95 |
| Average | 3 | 2 | 1,963 | $642,512 | $302 |
| Median | 3 | 2 | 1,495 | $420,000 | $265 |
*Please note that active listings include both active listings and homes pending sale but not yet sold.